Thinking Matters - A Thinking School
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At Holy Cross we are on a journey to become a Thinking School.
A Thinking School takes an explicit, evidence informed, whole school approach to developing pupils’ cognitive capability and intelligent learning behaviours. This is so that learners develop habits of mind that will ensure that they are fit for future learning, workplaces and life. We are learning to think about thinking! (This is called Metacognition).
We want to teach Thinking Skills so that children:
- Give up the notion of simply knowing right answers.
- Persist when they don’t know an answer.
- Think interdependently- problems are solved by working together, growing, changing, considering other points of view.
- Talk/communicate with clarity and precision.
- Become self modifying, self managing, self evaluating, self directed. (This is called Self Regulation)
- Plan, gather data, turn to other people, persist, ask questions.
- Be conscious of their own decisions and problem solving strategies. Be conscious of their effect on others and the environment.
- Evaluate themselves and make a commitment to get better at something over time.
- Learn to make judgments on themselves.
- Use their brains to finds patterns. Participate in problem based learning, project based learning.
We approach Thinking Skills across the whole curriculum, and employ a range of strategies and tools to support this. They include:
Thinking Frames These help us visualise our thinking. There are eight frames, each representing a fundamental cognitive skill such as comparing, contrasting, sequencing, and cause and effect reasoning. These are displayed in all classrooms as a quick reference for pupils.
Skilful Questioning Staff and pupils use explicit language and question starters to encourage higher order thinking.
Self Regulation is explicity taught. We want all our pupils to relish challenges, embrace their mistakes as part of the learning process, value the importance of effort, respond carefully to feedback and take inspiration from others. This will help them to achieve, not only with us, but also in their future lives as adults. Having a growth mindset is a key priority, linking strongly with Gospel Values.